An Old Photograph
by MrsB108
Summary: Sometimes machines notice things that people just can't. Derek/Sarah


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The tap of John's fingers as they flew across the keys of his keyboard filled the room, displacing any chance of an awkward silence. His concentration was admirable as he attempted to decipher the remaining encrypted string of code off of Vick's chip, though the past four hours had been disheartening to say the least.

Cameron stood perfectly poised over John's shoulders, her eyes trained directly at the computer but remaining far enough back as to not make John feel uncomfortable with her standing over him, her arms hanging neatly by her sides.

Derek sat at the edge of the bed to their left and his gaze flickered back and forth between what John was working on and the mass of papers and photos scattered about covering almost every possible inch of the bedspread in a random array that only made sense to him as he had laid them out, one by one, under intense scrutiny.

The three of them were an odd grouping to say the least, one full of good intention, another full of programming and code and the last full of anger and hatred; all of them with a common mission, a mission to save the future.

They had all been this way for quite some time; the only sound the constant tapping of the keyboard and the occasional cough or sniffle from either of the boys.

Sarah had been out tailing a lead from their new ally, Esmerelda, a local girl that ran with gangs who only spoke when she had something worth saying. None of them had heard from Sarah all day but they all knew better than to call her when she was out scouting and especially since nothing was actually wrong.

Derek continued to scan the information affront him, his hand wandering to an older picture on the upper right corner of the bed; a picture of Sarah that his eyes continued to seek out every few minutes or so, distracting him from everything else.

He held the picture in his hand for a moment before tossing it down carelessly, back into the pile of papers. Feeling the sudden paranoia of someone watching him he looked towards the others, finding a newly poised Cameron doing just that.

She was standing in her previous formation just a few feet behind John, but her head was positioned towards Derek now and he knew her mind was searching him, though her scan was completely invisible to the human eye.

"What the hell are you looking at?" Derek said rudely as she continued to stare.

Cameron did not move for a long moment before answering very matter-of-factly, "Your heart rate just increased."

Derek was taken aback by her statement and replied with an obvious annoyance in his voice, "What the hell are you talking about?"

John stopped clacking away and turned in his chair, looking briefly from Derek to Cameron waiting for her next response.

Cameron stepped over to the bed and reached down, picking up the now face-down picture of Sarah that Derek had previously been holding and held it so that he could easily see.

"You picked up this photograph and when you looked at it, your heart rate increased…...Significantly."

Derek felt a burn from under his cheeks and ripped the picture from Cameron's outstretched hand. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said as he tossed the picture back down into the pile.

"What's the picture of?" John asked curiously peering over towards the bed.

"Nothing."

"Your mother."

The unison response sent a slowly widening smile across John's face and he put his hands up in the air as if saying "I'm not getting involved" and returned to the clacking of his keyboard keys.

"I don't understand why you didn't notice it," Cameron stated calmly, continuing to address Derek. "An increase of that magnitude would have caused a conscious awareness."

"Just shut up…." Derek muttered trying to end the conversation by turning around as much as possible and facing his papers.

"You should have a-," Cameron pressed on.

"I SAID SHUT UP!!" Derek yelled as he leapt from the bed, getting right into Cameron's unflinching face.

A distant door slammed and in a matter of seconds Sarah Connor was standing in the empty doorway to the bedroom.

Derek was still standing poised in Cameron's face while John sat watching them in his swivel chair, a sly smile still lingering.

"What's going on in here?" Sarah said suspiciously.

No one said a word.

"I said what's -,"Sarah started.

"Derek and I were just discussing pictures," Cameron said plainly, though her eyes were still locked with Derek's seething ones.

Sarah shook her head disbelievingly and she turned heading down the hall removing her coat. "Fine," she said. "Dinner will be ready in 20 minutes."

Derek relaxed a bit and withdrew his stance, hesitantly claiming back his spot on the covered bed.

After a moment he looked back up at Cameron, who for the briefest of moments, gave him just the slightest wink.


End file.
